Popular primary looks set to go three-form entry

OXFORDSHIRE could soon have its first three-form entry primary school.

Consultations have begun on proposals to permanently change the intake at Windmill Primary School, Headington, from 60 to 90.

Last year the school took 90 children in reception for the first time and a further 90 started school last week, but the change was agreed as a temporary measure.

Now Oxfordshire County Council is asking for views on plans which would eventually see the school expand from about 480 pupils now to 630
pupils by 2017.

With three new classes of 30 pupils starting each September it would make it the largest primary school in the county in five years with a cohort as big as some secondaries.

Headteacher Lynn Knapp said she had mixed feelings. “This year we turned down a further 87 applications,” she explained.

“I don’t like thinking of children being taken across the city in taxis, but at the same time it would be a very large school and that brings with it lots of challenges.”

She added: “At the moment I know all the children by name and something about them and I’m determined not to lose that.”

If the change is made permanent new classrooms will be needed. A feasibility study is underway to examined how to accommodate them.

Chairman of governors Mayte Siswick, who is also a parent with two children at Windmill, said: “We would prefer not to expand, but if we don’t have a choice then I think we just have to make sure
we make the best of it and get as many resources as we can.”

She said the school would ultimately need at least another seven teachers and possibly additions to the senior management team, while the school hall is not large enough to cater for 630 children.

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Kate King, 40, from Headington, has two children at the school, Freya, four, and Heidi, seven, and said: “I can’t imagine transforming the school from its current size to 600 plus children is a
good thing. The infrastructure doesn’t exist.”

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